As we work toward financial sustainability, one of our most important building blocks is our budget. Over the past several weeks, many of you have contributed to presentations that we are now sharing with the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Ways and Means.

Our Ways and Means presentations are our opportunity to let legislators know how we work toward our mission to provide good health for all Oregonians. These presentations discuss challenging factors that drive our budget (including how half of Oregon’s children live in poverty and that the leading causes of early death are tobacco use, obesity and substance abuse). We also talk about how far we’ve come now that 95 percent of Oregonians have health care coverage, and more than a million are enrolled in coordinated care organizations. Thank you for your role in this success.

Please take a moment to view our presentations and get to know the many different ways we are achieving the triple aim of better health, better health care and lower costs. As we align the agency with the coordinated care model, we see even more clearly how our work is interdependent. What you do every day affects others in OHA as well as Oregonians across the state. We are posting our presentations on our website as soon as they are delivered to the committee. Kudos to everyone who worked so diligently to convey your OHA story through these slides.

Thank you,Lynne

To your health: Now that spring is officially here, seize the opportunity to get outside. You'll get greater health benefits exercising where it's green — even if it's only once a week. A 2003 Swedish study found that people who ran in parks felt 15 percent more restored than those who ran on treadmills or through city streets. Interaction with nature reduces depression, promotes healing, sparks creativity and even increases life expectancy — upping survival odds by about 15 percent over five years in one Japanese study.